Random ramblings

Personal Crafty Goals 2015

Yes I’ve spent all year on this and my edges are still messy

So, in 2014 I committed myself to two long term projects, my mood blanket and my sky scarf (both based on ideas from Leafcutter Designs with added inspiration from Laura Howard for the blanket), as I type (early evening 30th December) I can tell you that I am months away (at the rate I’m going) of finishing the mood blanket and that I may or may probably not finish the sky scarf on time (I am trying with that one, but I’m still knitting up October, it’s a bit of a pain in the butt project, as it will get tangled as soon as you look at it). But I have really appreciated having some long term projects on the go, particularly I think in the fact that they were both knitting projects, which is something previously I had not done much of. Both the scarf and the blanket are pretty basic knitting projects and I had hoped this year to progress onto something a little bit more adventurish but I guess I was too busy knitting the aforementioned scarf and blanket.

Anyway, I will finish the sky scarf and the mood blanket, if I don’t finish the scarf by tomorrow it will be within the next week I predict, the blanket will be quite a bit longer but I’ve enjoyed logging the sky colour and my mood each day and seeing it take shape in crafted form, I know that it’d be hard to give up in 2015. So, in 2015 I will continue logging sky colour and mood but instead of another scarf and knitted blanket I plan on making either a needlepoint sky cushion or cross stitch modern sky art piece (haven’t quite decided which yet) for my sky recordings and for my mood recordings I’m going to be making a paper pieced hexagon quilt.

However I plan on doing more than just that, I love (and can’t help getting swept away by) all the crafty enthusiasm out there on the blogs and Instagram at this time of year and I’ve decided (after seeing a link from Hugs are Fun) to do ‘Try Something New Every Month’ from the Swoodson Says blog (sorry, can’t find the specific page about this but you can also follow #TSNEM on twitter). I know (and maybe I should be slightly more happy with) that I am principally an embroiderer (followed by someone who cross stitches quite a bit, tries to knit a bit more and occasionally uses a sewing machine) but I do like pushing myself to do new stuff and I think actually that you never quite know when that new thing you try turns into either a new favourite hobby or something that you can end up using combined with your main craft passion. So I’m going to have a go, I’m not going to particularly plan what I’m going to do (although I know what I’m going to do in January and have a feeling what I’m going to be doing in February) but these are some of the things I’d like to / might have a go at

acrylic art

knitting with more complex shapes and stitches

crochet

learning how to use Photoshop properly

learning to code

weaving

drawing

making chocolates / sweets

screen printing

make toiletries

(I’m going to have to think of more things to add to the list!)

And call me way too over ambitious I think I’m also going to challenge myself to

Bake a different loaf of bread (or rolls) once a month

Bake a cake / pudding / savoury dish once a month that stretches me slightly more than the normal stuff I make.

Make one item of clothing a month (as I have way too many large, uncut pieces of fabric that were bought specifically for making clothes which never happened)

Call me ambitious but I have spent all of 2014 wanting to learn new stuff, bake bread more often, challenge my baking more and make more clothes and I didn’t do it.

However, 2014 wasn’t the easiest year (wait till you see my mood blanket) and due to events from this year I know that 2015 won’t be easy either and there may be quite a large chunk of time where crafting and baking will be physically hard but if I’ve learnt anything this year, I can’t plan my life around stuff that may not happen or if it is going to happen I don’t know when yet, so I’m going to plan away!

PS I’ve labelled this post ‘personal crafty goals’ for a reason, as I’m hoping / planning for 2015 to also bring some professional crafting goals into my life to.

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One thought on “Personal Crafty Goals 2015”

I’m so excited you’ll be participating and I love that you’re adding things like making sweets and toiletries to the list! I always love the idea behind 365 projects but I just can’t keep up with them, so the month thing is perfect for me. I’m looking forward to trying completely new skills as well as expanding on skills like new embroidery and knitting techniques. Can’t wait to see what you do!